Traveling over ground and imagination

Tag Archives: Trip

One of my more recent trips was to a lovely little town called Charleston. Okay, maybe it’s not so little but it is definitely lovely. If anyone asked me what I remember most about that trip, it would be the houses and iron work. Many of the houses are well over 100+ years old. The city has done a fantastic job preserving them so you almost feel like you’ve stepped back into the 19th century as you’re walking through the streets. Some of the houses are thin but tall. The house below must have been built as an after thought because it’s address was a 1/2. The house on the right was #59, the one of the left was 61 and this one was 59 1/2 (relatively speaking)!

In the older districts the walk ways were slate, which you can somewhat see in the picture above. For truly breath-taking homes, take a walk around Battery Park. All of the homes facing the ocean are historic and most of them are close to 180+ years old.

I loved the multi-colored roof tiles on this particular house. It’s not something you see too often in this day and age.

Gorgeous! I would love to have walked through the houses to see if the interior matched the exterior. Further into the neighborhood, the houses were all different sizes but the common theme was beautiful landscaping and iron work.

I loved these stairs!

Most of the iron gates seen throughout Charleston are works of art by Philip Simmons. The gates grace many homes, churches and local buildings. If you ever find yourself going through Charleston, I recommend you take some time to walk through the historic downtown area to admire the iron work if nothing else.

In 1737, a 31 year old gentleman was name the Deputy Postmaster in Philadelphia. That gentleman was Benjamin Franklin. Ben was originally from Boston, but ran to Philadelphia at 17 yrs old to get away from the law since he had quit his printing apprenticeship (with his brother) without permission making himself a fugitive. He eventually became a leading citizen in the colony, starting the first newspaper in Philadelphia, creating the first library, and contributing to the establishment of the University of Pennsylvania. All in all, Benjamin Franklin was a highly successful and talented man.

When he settled in Philadelphia, he settled on Market Street. Eventually he built a bookstore, printing shop, and Post office facing Market Street. Today, in the same location, is the postal museum and his printing shop:

There is a corridor between the buildings that leads to where Benjamin’s house stood at one time:

The city has erected a structure showing where his house was located. Through out the area you can see the remnants of his place.

Unfortunately, the house was torn down and built over. However, you can still see parts of the foundations and walls underground:

They even uncovered his “privy”…aka bathroom!:

Inside the metal house structure, they have the floor plan marked out so you can get an idea of what the house may have looked like at one time:

It was truly surreal to stand where one of our Founding Fathers lived. I was glad to see the city do their best to keep it alive. They had placards throughout the courtyard showing maps and details of Philly from the 1700’s. One of the more interesting ones was a view of Market Street through the years!

I’m sure Ben would have been a bit surprised to see the street as it looks now. Especially if he saw how people managed to move furniture in and out of the buildings! I couldn’t figure out if they were trying to move the mattress into the building or get it out. What do you think?

Mike and I recently went on a trip to Philadelphia, PA. One of the sites we wanted to see while there were the different sports stadiums. My husband is a huge football fan, so of course Lincoln Financial Field was our first stop!

I was surprised at how close the stadium was to the freeway. I felt like we could just reach out and touch it, if we wanted.

Once we found our way down to the stadium, we were impressed to see the entire sports compound. Next door to Lincoln Financial Field was the Wells Fargo Center where the 76 Flyers play!

Behind the Football stadium was the Citizens Bank Park where the Phillies play. I wasn’t able to get a picture of it. Mike was hoping to get a view of the Vet, but the new ballpark was built on top of where it was.

My second trip to the Biltmore’s Greenhouse was just as exciting as the first. Unfortunately, the flowers were out just yet in the outside garden, but the flowers indoors were beautiful! Since the pictures truly speak for themselves…